WOW! That's a long wait!

I have heard this phrase a lot lately in regards to the long wait we have ahead of us for our Ethiopian adoption. I want to remind myself and everyone about our wonderful agency, Wide Horizons For Children (WHFC). As I have learned more about Ethiopian adoption, I have found out, not every agency has long wait times.

However, our agency is more concerned with humanitarian aid rather than adoption in the countries they work in. While we would like to adopt an orphan, it was also important to us that we be a part of a larger mission. We are proud that we will be able to tell our child that we did not only adopt them, but we contributed to the betterment of their birth country.

While some agencies are founded solely for the practice of adoption, WHFC was founded in 1974 to provide help to orphaned children in Vietnam. The basis of WHFC is to help and develop the countries where they work. Their primary goal is to keep birthfamilies together and to help provide the resources to encourage the family to stay united. In this case, adoption is a last resort. Adoption is something the family turns to when they have no other options. We did not want to be responsible for breaking up a birthfamily. This was very important to us and in line with our morals. When an agency has this type of mind-set, it decreases the likelihood of an unethical adoption.

Currently, WHFC is focused on bringing medical and educational resources to the
communities in Ethiopia. Anyone who knows hubby and I, knows that access to quality education is high on our list. Also, since I am a physician, I am very passionate about adequate healthcare.

WHFC has built one hospital already and are in the process of building another hospital. They also have built or furnished additions to four schools. Many of the towns that WHFC works in are very remote. There is limited access to schools and no access to medical facilities. WHFC is changing the landscape of Ethiopia.

We are very thankful to be able to contribute to the betterment of our child's birth country. So, yes, the wait is long, but well worth it. Here is a short video to remind myself of what our agency stands for and some of the reasons why we are waiting (There is a longer video in my blog post from Feburary 2010).

Our First Baby Item

I know it has been a long time since I last posted. There just has not been too much to post about. However, today, I received our first baby item in the mail! It is an Ergo Baby Carrier that I found online on sale. I realized that is one of the positives of this extremely long wait. We can gradually acquire all the items we may need. As many of you know, hubby and I are super planners, so this style of buying things suits us perfectly. It would be too stressful to wait and get everything in the ~3 months we will have from the referral of our child until we bring them back home to the States. Plus, I get so overwhelmed everytime I peruse the aisles of a baby superstore. Once we get our referral, there will be plenty to do besides buying baby items. We will have more paperwork to complete, we will have to take paperwork to our international adoption pediatrician and we will have to start looking at flights and hotels for our first trip to Ethiopia. Those are just a few of the things we will need to do and we will have ~1 week - 1 month to complete everything.